Things boys play with are not like objects girls play with. Boys often have more freedom to run about and they get guns, train sets, toy trucks and toy cars. Electronic games are very popular among young boys. Toys for girls are much quieter and more passive. Young girls often get things like dolls, dresses, and pictures to colour.

2.

“Teddies” are an important part of British culture. Most people in Britain have a teddy bear when they are young, and most people are very fond of their special bear, even when they are 30 or 40 years old! Many famous people like film stars or pop stars or politicians collect “teddies”. These people have donated their old friends to the teddy bear museum which is in Stratford-on-Avon in England. Many tourists go to this place, because it is the birthplace of Shakespeare, but they often love the teddy bear museum more.

3.

Computer games are a multimillion dollar industry, but people who really enjoy games are not satisfied with playing against the computer. They want to play against real people and most computer games allow you to do that just by joining up with other players on the Internet. Regular players say that this is where their true enjoyment of games can be found. With some games up to 60 people can take part. It's a good way to meet people and it gives you something to talk about.

4.

The big American company General Motors has developed a vehicle that uses the power of the sun instead of petrol. The vehicle is called Sunraycer which means "ray of the sun"+"racer". Sunraycer has just taken part in a race against 25 solar-powered vehicles. Sunraycer covered the great distance in 45 hours at a speed of 41 miles an hour at temperatures as high as 48°C. It is certainly the car of the future.

5.

Computers are a great technological invention of the 20th century. Their advantages are numerous yet much can be said against them. The main disadvantage of computers is that looking at a screen for long periods of time is bad for the eyes, and sitting on a chair for hours is not healthy. Also, people who use computers have a tendency to become anti-social and stay at home. The strongest argument against the use of computers is that the more jobs which are done by computers, the less are done by people.

6.

Thirty years ago few people realized that computers were about to become part of our everyday lives. This short period of time has seen great changes in business, education and public administration. Jobs which took weeks to do in past, are now carried out in minutes. Schoolchildren have become as familiar with hardware and software as their parents were with pencils and exercise books and they don’t worry about mistakes having a computer.

7.

Generous granddad Martin Rossiter, from Macclesfield, has built a treehouse for his grandchildren – costing Ј35,000! The top-of-the-range two-storey treehouse features a series of rope walkways between the sycamores, oaks and pine trees in Martin’s garden and took builders five days to make. He plans to add running water, electricity and bunk beds to make it perfect play-den. Martin has 12 grandchildren – aged from 2 to12 – but the rest of his family believe he secretly made the house for himself!

The monster fish announced itself with four huge blows of its tail, thrashing against the net that had trapped it in the Mekong River.

It was a rare giant catfish, 1__________________.

At 2.7 meters in length and weighing 293 kilogram, it may be the biggest freshwater fish ever recorded.

But in one of the world’s more surprising mysteries, nobody really knows which is the biggest species of fish lurking under the waters of the Mekong or the Amazon or the Yangtze or the Congo or the Colorado or Lake Baikal.

When the giant catfish was caught in May, a biologist named Zeb S. Hogan rushed here to take a look. It was his first trophy 2__________________.

Sponsored by the National Geographic Society and the World Wildlife Fund, 3__________________.

He has started with the Mekong, which he said has seven species of giant fish, more than any other river, along with at least 750 other species. All of them are threatened –4__________________– by overfishing, pollution and development, including major dam projects.

The Mekong giant catfish may be 5__________________. The few that remain can be spotted now only in central Cambodia and here, just below the Golden Triangle, where northern Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet.

No one has made a credible claim to top this year’s trophy, Mr. Hogan said. “I keep expecting people to send me photos or records of larger fish, 6__________________,” Mr. Hogan said. “But that’s kind of the point of the project. Let’s gather all the information that’s out there and decide which is the largest freshwater fish.”

^A.

like river fish around the world

B.

in a project to identify the world’s largest freshwater fish in the hope of slowing their extinction

C.

but nobody has

D.

and it took five boatmen an hour to pull it in and 10 men to lift it when they reached the shore in this remote village in northern Thailand

^E.

but we couldn’t weigh it

F.

Mr. Hogan has embarked on an 18-month expedition that will take him to five continents

My friendship with Kathy wasn’t a perfect friendship. I learned very soon in our relationship that Kathy was jealous. We would have great fun going out shopping but if I bought, say, a dress for a party and she thought my dress was better than hers, she would start to say slightly unkind things about it. She would be keen to come out with me to buy the dress. She would give me a lot of helpful advice while I was trying on the various dresses in the shops. Her advice would be good. She would even tell the shop assistant if she thought the price was too high. I can remember one occasion when she said this and, to my surprise, they knocked the price down so that I could afford to buy it. The trouble would come later. When we were actually going to the party and we were both dressed up and she was looking marvellous (for she was very beautiful) she would suddenly say, “I think, Sarah, we were both wrong about that dress. It looks a bit cheap, doesn’t it!”

Once or twice I “dropped” Kathy. I told her I was too busy to see her. Or I told her I had to see another friend. All these lies hurt me because I had no other friend and I was so lonely. But they never hurt her. She just smiled sweetly and said she’d see me next week. And of course, within a week or so, I’d be on the phone asking her to come out. She never minded this. She never sulked at me and pretended that she was too busy.

Students always celebrated the end of the college year with a fancy-dress ball. It was a big event. But as luck would have it, Kathy and I had made another arrangements for the day of the ball. We had booked to go to the theatre. We had talked for ages of going, and at last we had our tickets. For us it was a big event. It was a musical and our favourite singer star was in it, so our hearts were set on the theatre.

Then Kathy came round to see me. Mother was in at the time, and I had to speak to her on the doorstep because Mum had just been having a go at me for seeing too much of Kathy.

“I don’t want that girl coming in this house and nosing around.” So I told Kathy I couldn’t invite her in because my Mum had a bad headache.

Kathy didn’t mind. She smiled and said she was sorry about my mother’s bad head. I was sure she knew what had really happened.

But she carried on smiling, and then she said: “I’m sorry, but I can’t come to the theatre with you after all. My brother’s come home and he wants to take me to the fancy-dress ball at the college. I can’t let him down.” I couldn’t believe that she would let me down. She knew how much I had looked forward to the theatre trip. We had talked about it together for months.

I was almost in tears by the time I had said goodbye to her and closed the door. My Mum was kind and understanding. She made me promise I would never see Kathy again. I agreed, and felt that was the least I could do by way of revenge for my disappointment. I told myself that I would never so much as talk to Kathy if I saw her. Our relationship was at an end. I would never forget what she had done to me.

A14

When Sarah says that Kathy was jealous she implies that Kathy didn’t like it when Sarah

1)

had fun going out.

2)

managed to buy the dress cheaply.

3)

wore expensive clothes.

4)

wore clothes smarter than her own.

A15

When Sarah was buying a dress in a shop Kathy would

1)

start to say slightly unkind things about it.

2)

do her best to ensure that Sarah made the best buy.

3)

insist that Sarah should buy a cheap dress.

4)

be keen to buy a marvellous dress for herself.

A16

When Sarah tried to “drop” her, Kathy

1)

pretended to be busy.

2)

went to see another friend.

3)

felt hurt and lonely.

4)

always took it easy.

“But as luck would have it” in paragraph 3 means Kathy and Sarah

A17

1)

had the luck to get the tickets for the musical.

2)

were happy to have made arrangements for the ball.

3)

were looking forward to hearing their favourite singer.

4)

had by chance two events on the same day.

A18

Sarah couldn’t invite Kathy to come in because

1)

their house was in a mess.

2)

her mother was suffering from a bad headache.

3)

her mother disapproved of her daughter’s friend.

4)

Kathy had come to their house to nose around.

Kathy said she didn’t mind speaking to Sarah on the doorstep because she